1 . A role shift—whether a promotion, a move to a new organization, or a fresh challenge in your existing job—can be a huge boost to your career and a chance for you to succeed. You know the drill heading in: Apply your experience and talents to the position, make sure you are accepted by the hierarchy (高层), and get a few big wins in the first couple of months to demonstrate what you can do.
But in today’s hyper-collaborative and dynamic workplaces, successful moves aren’t as easy as they once were, even for the most qualified and hard-working people. Too often, transitional managers and employees don’t live up to their organizations’ expectations. Gartner surveys indicate that a full 49% of people promoted within their own companies are underperforming up to 18 months after those moves, and McKinsey reports that 27% to 46% of transitional executives are regarded as failures or disappointments two years later. They have the right skills and experience. They understand the company’s goals. So why didn’t they quickly excel in their new roles?
We analyzed employee relationships and communication patterns across more than 100 diverse companies and interviewed 160 executives in 20 of them. Our research points to one overlooked prerequisite (先决条件) for transition success: the effective use of internal networks. The people who are the most productive, innovative, and engaged in new roles — the “fast movers” — are those who establish extremely broad, mutually beneficial, uplifting connections from the start. Specifically, they surge rapidly into a broad network; identify how they add value, where they fall short, and who can fill the gaps; create scale; and shape their networks for maximum thriving.
In most cases, individual managers must do these things on their own. Only 43% of people surveyed said their organizations ensured that transitional employees were offered guidance and support. Only about a quarter said their employers encouraged them to build connections early or create networks to address skill gaps. But that should not be the case.
1. What does the author say about job moves in today’s society?| A．They are a boost to our career. | B．They require ability demonstration. |
| C．They may not produce good results. | D．They need to be guided by managers. |
| A．They are inexperienced. | B．They lack the needed skills. |
| C．They misunderstand the company’s goals. | D．They fail to use internal networks effectively. |
| A．By using exact numbers. | B．By conducting surveys. |
| C．By making contrasts. | D．By listing examples. |
| A．It’s common. | B．It’s unexpected. |
| C．It’s acceptable. | D．It’s unsurprising. |
2 . Working with ARIA Research, a startup developing vision for the blind, Phoebe Peng is using technologically advanced human echolocation (回声定位) that enables blind users to perceive their surroundings in precise detail.
The process uses event cameras which, unlike normal cameras that take complete images of a scene, track changes in an image over time, making them ideal for the observation of small objects like table tennis balls. The images are then processed into sound using a specialised algorithm (算法). This is then communicated back to the player via a lot of loudspeakers, ultimately with the aim of allowing players to track the ball and movements using sounds.
According to Peng, table tennis makes a perfect test case for the kind of technology being developed by ARIA Research. “Table tennis has been played for decades as a more accessible version of tennis. The sport is beginner-friendly while maintaining a rich level of competitive play. However, like many sports, it remains difficult for people who suffer vision loss or have low vision,” said Ms Peng, who will soon complete a Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering.
“The small size of the ball and table, along with the movement of the ball in 3D space, are things that make table tennis difficult to play for those with low vision and complete blindness,” said Peng, who is completing the work for her degree. “Making this sport more accessible while also exploring the potential of event cameras were my two biggest motivators,” she said.
In one study, using two perfectly positioned cameras, Ms Peng was able to identify and track a ball in three dimensions in real time. She then fed that data into an algorithm controlling the loudspeakers standing along the sides of the table, which created a sound field matching the position of the ball.
While the results are promising, more experimentation will be needed before the system will be ready for actual play. “There are limitations on how accurately people can perceive sound localisation. What type of sound should be used? Should the sound be continuous? This is what we’ll be tackling in the next stage of development,” said Ms Peng.
1. How are event cameras different from normal ones?| A．They can have sounds located. |
| B．They are linked with loudspeakers. |
| C．They constantly follow image changes. |
| D．They take complete images of a scene. |
| A．Its unique feature. | B．Its fierce competition. |
| C．Its technical complexity. | D．Its beginner-friendliness. |
| A．Its inspiring results. | B．Its promising future. |
| C．Its practical applications. | D．Its technological challenge. |
| A．Technology Opens up Blind Table Tennis |
| B．Blind People Work Wonders in Table Tennis |
| C．Event Camera Reshapes Future for the Disabled |
| D．Algorithm Helps Translate Imagination to Sound |
I was never “that girl” — the one who had charming appearance, and who enjoyed a colorful social life. I was another girl entirely, one who was considered “nice girls”, and the top student in class. Not that I didn’t care about friends or fun, I just didn’t think it was worth putting lots of time and effort into changing how I looked, how I acted, even as I started high school.
Marissa was “that girl” — fun to be around, good to know. We are different, but our friendship began the first time we met at an exciting soccer match, on the second day of freshmen year. The excitement of the game and our shared interest in soccer connected us, I was deeply impressed with her enthusiasm, while she admired my calm. Our conversations went smoothly, and our relationship quickly turned into a close bond.
However, as the school year progressed, Marissa’s outgoing personality began to conflict with my reserved nature. She stood out in social situations, constantly asking me to attend parties and social events. While I appreciated her efforts to include me, I felt awkward and uncomfortable to be forced into unfamiliar surroundings. Our once harmonious friendship started to crack, I tried to turn down her invitations, but in vain.
One evening, Marissa persuaded me to attend a large party at a classmate’s house. Surrounded by loud music and strange faces, I felt uneasy and upset. Marissa was the queen of the party, leaving me feeling extremely lonely. Her personality attracted others to her, creating a barrier between us.
注意:1.续写词数应为150个左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
At that moment, I realized the growing divide between us.
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Since then, we worked together to find a balance of our personalities.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Alvin Bamburg, 66, was deep in the woods in Grand Cane, Louisiana, last December when something caught his eye. Among the fallen branches and leaves, it looked like litter. But Bamburg was attracted and picked it up.
“God just told me,” he later recounted.
As he drew closer, he saw that it was a broken balloon. Attached was a piece of paper decorated with sparkly star stickers. It was a child’s Christmas wish list.
“Dear Santa,” the handwritten note read. “My name is Luna. I am four years old. I live in Liberal, Kansas. This year I have been nice. I would like candy, Spider-Man ball, Frozen doll. With love, Luna.”
Bamburg’s heart hammered in his chest. Ever since he was a child, he had dreamed of this very scenario. “Years ago,” he says, “classes at school released balloons with notes. I’ve always wanted to find one.”
He believed this was his childhood wish coming true. And he knew he was going to make Luna’s wish come true too.
However, the task seemed impossible, as Liberal, Kansas, is more than 650 miles from Grand Cane, Louisiana. But Bamburg’s wife, Lee Ann Bamburg, didn’t mind the distance. As an enthusiastic Facebook user, she had seen other people find all sorts of connections through the site and thought it might help her husband find Luna.
The next day Alvin posted a photo of the balloon and the Christmas list on his Facebook page, asking for help locating the sender.
At first, he wasn’t confident the strategy would work. But as he saw the number of shares and comments on his post climbed into the hundreds, his hope grew into expectation. “I knew we were going to find Luna.” Alvin said.
And indeed, they did.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
One day Luna’s mother came across the post.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When they arrived at Luna’s home, the entire family was surprised.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Have you ever been so depressed that you can’t sleep? You also can’t eat. You can’t read. You have no friends to call up and nothing is good on TV. So you sigh, press your face down harder into your pillow, and shed a few tears.
This was my life two years ago. I had just turned 14 but already found life a struggle. As I lay in my bed one Saturday, Mom peeked (瞄) into my room to make her regular “Is Emily still alive” check. I knew that if I spent more time like this, she would begin dusting me. After suggesting a few things for me to do that I immediately rejected, Mom made her move, “Emily! Get dressed! I’m taking the dog out for a walk, and you’re coming with me!” “Why?” I protested. “Because it’ll make you feel better.”
The thought of moving was unbearable. I felt as if all of my body parts were weighed down by tons of bricks I couldn’t remember the last time I had gone outside. Somehow I found the strength to slip on a pair of jeans and a black sweatshirt. Mom was waiting at the door, leash (狗绳) in hand and dog at her side.
Then, we stepped outside. It was a warm March day and it had been a long time since the warmth of the sun had touched my cheeks. Mom led the dog and me down some dirt paths, through a big field and reached Halsey Pond. But the signs of spring had yet to appear and the scene was rather colorless throughout the entire journey.
“I’m tired! It’s boring, Mom! When can we go home?” “Not yet,” she’d say. Mom stopped to say hi to every jogger, dog walker, runner, and bicyclist who passed us. Sometimes she would get into a conversation. They would talk about weather, dogs, and all small talk topics. She seemed happy, and was literally glowing (容光焕发). After walking for what seemed an age, Mom finally said it was time to go back.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1: When I got home, a new feeling seemed to be awakened.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: A new Saturday found me asking Mom if I could take the dog out.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. 问题描述；
2. 相应建议。
注意：
1. 词数80左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，使内容充实，行文连贯。
Dear Mr. Wang,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
Last weekend, I was standing at the finish line of the St. Francis Franny Flyer 5K (五公里赛) route, waiting for my nine-year-old son Kade to pass by.
Kade, though a fourth-grader, was already an experienced runner. He had been a part of a cross-country club since he was six years old. He had loved to run for as long as he could remember. He had been working hard to improve his endurance and running skills as he was determined to be a professional runner and compete in national and international races when he was older.
There were two St. Francis Franny Flyer races happening at the same time that day. The 5K race weaved through neighborhoods, from the church to Pinecone Road and back while the 10K followed the same route but extended north on Pinecone Road. Race volunteers were available on Pinecone Road to show runners the way, and there were also signs directing the two different courses.
I signed Kade up for the 5K race as a way to train him for the Junior Olympics. He had never run a 10K, not even in training, so the 10K race was never an option.
Kade was pretty fast and he set a 5K record for his age group at last year’s race, so I was surprised to see slower runners crossing the finish line before him. “This is weird. He should be ahead of them. He might just be having a bad race,” I thought to myself. But as the minutes passed, my worry intensified. My heart raced at the thought that Kade might be lost or injured.
Anxious and worried, I drove along the 5K race route in search of Kade, but he was nowhere to be found. A surge of fear and despair overwhelmed me, causing a flood of tears to pour down my face. I turned to race officials and volunteers for help, and people started looking for him.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Later, a volunteer told me he had spotted Kade on the 10K course.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, Kade appeared and crossed the finish line.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Bill Sumiel was having a tough Friday. It was October 2020, and the 71-year-old, who was dealing with kidney failure (肾衰竭) and had been on dialysis (血液透析) for a few years, found himself at the hospital 30 miles from home for the second time in 24 hours. The day before, his brother had driven him for a routine declotting (去除血块), but it unexpectedly blocked again that night.
Sumiel was no stranger to the struggles of kidney disease. He’d been diagnosed with diabetes (糖尿病) more than 20 years before, which led to his kidney problems. He was on the list of the kidney transplant program, but no matches had yet appeared. So he continued with his treatments, including the periodic declotting that had failed this time. This time, Sumiel took a taxi to and from his appointment.
Timothy Letts, 31, was driving north to visit a friend when his phone received the request for Sumiel’s ride home. The trip was out of Letts’s way. Still, he took the fare, figuring if the passenger was coming from a hospital, he likely needed a ride.
When Sumiel got into the car, Letts could see that the older man was not energetic but in good spirits. And as they set out on the 40-minute drive to Sumiel’s home, the pair started chatting.
Letts shared with Sumiel that he was a proud Army veteran (老兵) and Sumiel mentioned that in the past he’d enjoyed volunteering at his church and in his community, even serving as president of the city council. But he was doing less these days, he explained, because the dialysis treatments left him exhausted and he was searching for a kidney donor.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
This hit Timothy Letts deeply.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Weeks later, Letts received a call from the hospital, saying he was a perfect match.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . In a recent study of healthy volunteers, National Institutes of Health researchers discovered that our brains may replay memories of learning new skills when we rest.
NIH researchers have mapped out the brain activity that flows when we learn a new skill, such as playing a new song on the piano, and found that during short rest the volunteers’ brains rapidly and repeatedly replayed faster versions of the activity seen while they practiced typing a code. The more a volunteer replayed the activity the better they performed during subsequent practice sessions.
The study was conducted at the NIH Clinical Center. The team of Dr. Cohen, M.D. , senior investigator at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), used a highly sensitive scanning technique to record the brain waves of 33 healthy, right-handed volunteers as they learned to type a five-digit test code with their left hands. The subjects sat in a chair and under the scanner’s long, cone-shaped cap. An experiment began when a subject was shown the code “41234” on a screen and asked to type it out as many times as possible for 10 seconds and then take a 10 second break. Subjects were asked to repeat this cycle of alternating (交替的) practice and rest sessions a total of 35 times.
During the first few trials, the speed at which subjects correctly typed the code improved dramatically and then leveled off around the 11th cycle. In a previous study, Dr. Cohen’s team showed that most of these gains happened during short rests, and not when the subjects were typing. Moreover, the gains were greater than those made after a night’s sleep and were related with a decrease in the size of brain waves, called beta rhythms. In this new report, the researchers searched for something different in the subjects’ brain waves.
“We wanted to explore the mechanisms (机制) behind memory strengthening seen during wakeful rest. Several forms of memory appear to rely on the replaying of neural (神经的) activity, so we decided to test this idea out for procedural skill learning,” said Ethan R. Buch, Ph.D., a staff scientist on Dr. Cohen’s team and leader of the study. To do this, Dr. Buch developed a computer program which allowed the team to understand the brain wave activity associated with typing each number in the test code.
Interestingly, they found that the more a volunteer replayed, the better their performance was. “We were a bit surprised by these last results. Overall, our results support the idea that the replay activity during waking rest may be a powerful tool that researchers can use to help individuals learn new skills faster and possibly facilitate recovery from stroke.” said Dr. Cohen.
1. What have NIH researchers recently found?| A．The brain activity slowly flows when we learn a new skill. |
| B．The value of short practice sessions can’t be overestimated. |
| C．Short rest makes no difference to the neural replay of the activity. |
| D．The frequency of brain replay contributes to practice performances. |
| A．The process of the research. |
| B．The facilities of the research. |
| C．The application of the research. |
| D．The preparations of the research. |
| A．To distinguish the first 11 cycles from the later ones. |
| B．To confirm the role of neural replay in skill learning. |
| C．To explore the potential effects of procedural learning. |
| D．To find out the reasons for the changes in brain waves. |
| A．Acceptable. |
| B．Promising. |
| C．Shallow. |
| D．Dismissive. |
Eight-year-old Evan stood by the sidewalk watching as Mrs. Carter opened her flower shop. He felt relieved that the shop hadn’t closed forever. Two days ago, when he passed by, there was a closed sign on the door and a note saying Mrs. Carter was sick. Evan was worried that he would never be able to get his “dream job” if the shop remained closed for too long.
Mrs. Carter, an 85-year-old woman, spotted Evan looking in her shop’s direction and waved hello to him. Excitedly, Evan ran up to her and expressed his desire to work at the shop. Mrs.Carter laughed quietly, finding it amusing that an eight-year-old wanted a job. Evan confidently explained that since his dad passed away, he had learned how to do various tasks, like taking out the rubbish, making sandwiches, and assisting his mom, Stacey, with groceries. He didn’t want any payment for his work; instead, he simply wanted a bouquet (花束) for his mom’ s upcoming birthday. He believed in working hard for what he wanted, just as his mom had taught him.
Impressed by Evan’s determination, Mrs. Carter agreed to hire him. She asked if he knew how to tie ribbons around flowers, and when she heard Evan’s affirmative(肯定的) response, they got down to making bouquets. Evan was excited to assist Mrs. Carter every evening for a whole week, and his presence brought joy to her boring work.Customers found Evan adorable and entertaining, which resulted in increased flower purchases and booming business for Mrs. Carter.
On Evan’s last day, Mrs.Carter felt emotional. Their bond had grown strong, and she saw him as a grandchild. As she prepared a splendid bouquet for Evan’s mother, tears welled up in her eyes. She invited him to visit her shop in the future, and Evan promised to tell his mom about her.
注意: 1. 续写词数应为150左右;2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
With the bouquet in hand, Evan rushed home to celebrate Mom’s birthday.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As Evan handed his mom the bouquet, they were surprised to discover an envelope with several hundred-dollar bills inside.
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